Instructors
Becky Glenn
Becky is a registered yoga teacher (RYT) by Yoga Alliance in the vinyasa (flow) style of yoga – receiving her initial teacher training from Stephanie Keach at the Asheville Yoga Center in Asheville, NC, in 2006. Ever since, Becky has been consistently teaching multiple yoga classes each week – first at the popular intown yoga studio in Atlanta, Yoga Samadhi, then in Silver City after moving here in 2009.
Becky teaches various classes, ranging from gentle to vigorous. In all classes, Becky emphasizes listening to one’s own body and following the breath. Becky brings a tender-hearted, playful spark to the yoga practice, creating an environment to support each student’s intentions and needs… while having FUN!
Beth Cable
For Beth, yoga has been a journey of self-discovery. She started exploring and studying yoga basics in 1995 and attended her first public class in 1997. Her interest, participation and studies continued to grow as she completed her 200-hour yoga teacher training at Kripalu Center of Yoga and Health in 2009. She has complemented this with additional trainings and workshops, including Yoga Therapy and Ayurveda at the Rocky Mountain Institute of Yoga and Ayurveda, hands-on assisting and adjustments at the Shambhava School of Yoga, three week-long Anusara immersions at Akasha Yoga and Yoga Tejas and teaching inspiration with Elena Brower at North End Yoga in Boston.
Currently, she primarily practices Kundalini yoga. By combining pranayama, asana and feeling through quiet stillness, she aims to provide individual physical, emotional and mental growth, joy and relaxation. This combination encourages witnessing one’s true nature more deeply and the connection to the world around us.
Diane Smith, LCSW, CYT
Trauma has touched most of our lives in one way or another, either through our personal experiences or those of our loved ones. Its impact can be overt, as in full blown symptoms of PTSD, or more covertly can show up as low level anxiety, physical tension or hyper-vigilance. Often it leaves us with an anxious mind, or worse, feeling unsafe in our environment or in our own bodies.
In her trauma-informed yoga classes, Diane leads us in the practice of Hatha yoga including pranayama, mantra, chanting and asanas to move us toward feeling calm and reconnected with our deeper selves. In addition, numerous strategies to engage the parasympathetic nervous system are included, drawing from neuroscience, trauma therapy approaches and Polyvagal Theory (calming of the Vagus nerve). It is hoped that this combination of diverse approaches will give participants a wide array of calming and coping strategies to carry off the mat and into daily life.
Heather Steinmann
Heather was an ashtanga yoga practitioner for over a decade before being asked to teach a class at her home studio. After teaching ashtanga for a year, she went on to study other styles of yoga to deepen her practice.
Heather completed her yoga teacher training in 2014 with Tanya Boigenzahn, founder of the Devanadi School of Yoga and Wellness. Rather than focusing on a single style of yoga, Heather’s classes incorporate asana and other mind/body modalities from classical, tantra, and modern yoga traditions.
Jeff Goin
Jeff has been teaching and leading non-denominational meditation in Silver City, on a volunteer basis, since 2008. His classes provide practical ideas and methods for improving relationships, overcoming anger, dealing with stress and, in general, establishing and maintaining a peaceful state of mind.
Jeff is a co-founder of Single Socks, a non-profit thrift store in Silver City that donates hundreds of thousands of dollars to anti-hunger programs in Grant County, New Mexico. He is a practicing Mahayana Buddhist since 1999.
Mary Ann Finn
Mary Ann trained with the World Laughter Tour and Sebastian Gendry of the American School of Laughter Yoga. Mary Ann has been leading laughter clubs/laughter yoga sessions since 2007. Mary Ann strongly believes that laughter is the antidote to stress and that stress is responsible for/or aggravates many of our modern health issues. Laughter decreases our stress hormones, boosts our immune system, relaxes our muscles, increases the oxygen levels in our blood and calms our minds.
While not laughing, Mary Ann can be found exploring Boston Hill, cooking with her solar oven or finding joy in her backyard – a world of opportunity.
Juniper Bowers
Juniper Bowers is the creator of Myssage, a technique of self-massage based on the principles of deep myofascial tissue release. Juniper was trained as a Rossiter Coach and in Thai Massage and worked for many years as a body worker before synthesizing her expertise into a form of self-massage that can be taught in a class. Juniper has been a teacher for 20 years and a Yoga instructor for 15 years.
Juniper began her training in the tradition of Iyengar Yoga, which places a heavy emphasis on correct alignment. She has since then gone on to study Vinyasa flow and Anusara Yoga and Feldenkrais, hoop for health and balance auditory visual exercises (Bal-a-vis-x). Her style is a unique combination of all of the above. She has taken the best parts of all of the modalities that she has studied to create an experience that is deeply transformative and informative. Juniper expertly blends and offers, an awareness physiology, traditional Yoga poses, correct alignment, techniques for brain and body balancing with a light hearted and playful approach to creating lifelong wellness skills that are accessible for everyone. At the Lotus Center Juniper offers a weekly Myssage class and occasional workshops of Hoop for health and Bal-A- Vis -X. myssage.com
Kit West
I began to do Tai Chi while living on Lake Atitlan in Guatemala in the 90s. There was a generous but cranky Tai Chi master who offered free classes in his garden in the morning three days a week. He mixed basic Tai Chi with Qi Gong and Taoist wisdom. To this day I model my classes after his. I attended his classes for ten years. Upon returning to the States in 2001, I, tragically, left Tai Chi behind, and it was only when the aging process forced itself on my attention that I returned to Tai Chi. Simultaneously, a local senior living facility lost their Tai Chi instructor and invited me to take his place. I discovered Dr. Paul Lam’s Tai Chi for Health organization and became certified to teach Tai Chi according to his format: “watch me, follow me, show me.” I taught at the Good Samaritan Society Loveland Village for five years. I have now been doing Tai Chi again for ten+ years, starting my day with Qi Gong and the salutation to the sun and then the Yang 24 and the Sun 73 styles of Tai Chi. I am now 66 and am evidence as to the benefits of Tai Chi for seniors as well as participants of any age.
Marc Nevas (Acharya Bhavananda)
Marc has been teaching meditation techniques based on ancient Tantra for 26 years. He began his meditation practices over 50 years ago and has traveled to India for advanced training from his teacher Shrii Shrii Anandamurti. He completed over 1,000 hours of formal training and received his ordination as an Acarya (meditation teacher) in 1998. This training enables Marc to give individualized lessons with individual mantras and give initiation with transference of spiritual energy (Shaktipat).
Marc founded a center for Meditation and Yoga and later was the builder and co-director of the Sanctuary Retreat Center both in Northwest Montana. He has also been a presenter at meditation retreats in Italy, Finland and numerous locations in the United States
Natalie Hall
Natalie is a registered yoga teacher in the Sivananda school of yoga. She was attracted to Sivananda yoga for its medical foundation (the guru, Swami Sivananda Saraswati, was a medical doctor), its consistent and structured asana and pranayama components, and its strong attention to yoga’s traditional roots. A typical Sivananda yoga class incorporates opening and closing chants (Bhakti yoga), pranayama (breathing exercises), and asana practice built around 12 basic postures with variations, and with relaxation between postures.
In addition to Sivananda yoga Natalie is a member of a growing movement of rehabilitation professionals working to “bridge the gap” between traditional allopathic or Western medicine and the ancient knowledge of yoga. She brings this intention to her work as a physical therapist for Gila Regional Medical Center’s outpatient rehabilitation department. Likewise, she is able to help her yoga students work with sensitive or injured areas in their yoga practice in order to achieve more complete movement.
Patricia Stone
Patricia Grijalva Stone was born in Silver City, raised in Bayard, and has recently returned home after 30 years. Her discovery of yoga has positively impacted all areas of her life, so much so that she became a registered yoga instructor in the Vinyasa flow style. Her passion is to share the physical, mental, and spiritual benefits of a regular yoga practice.
On a physical level, yoga helps improve flexibility, strength, balance and endurance; and on a mental level, yoga teaches how to cope better with stress by cultivating a sense of ease in both active and passive poses. On a spiritual level, yoga helps to cultivate awareness by allowing the space to connect deeper within yourself. She creates a warm, welcoming environment for students of all levels to come unwind, relax, energize, heal, and strengthen their body, mind, and spirit. Her classes incorporate breath (pranayama), movement (asanas), core strength (bhandas), flow, and music.
Shivani Ma
Shivani Ma grew up surrounded by the prairies of North Dakota. Her interest in the healing arts began in her teens. Most of what she first learned was through self-study and apprenticeship. She received formal training at the Supreme Science Qigong Center and Mesilla Valley School of Therapeutic Arts. She was initiated into the Siddhi Yoga lineage in 2006. Each step of her learning has built upon what came before in her healing and education, which inspires her integrative approach to teaching. Shivani brings her variety of experiences of energy, movement, and the body to her Yin class.
SLUM
SLUM studied at the Globe Institute of Sound and Consciousness in 2016 where he became certified in this field. He’s done many sessions, one-on-one as well as group oriented. A sound bath consists of a various range of instrumentation as well as different tones and song, all designed to assist in restoring ones’ vibrational balance.
Susan Mittelstadt
Susan Mittelstadt became a yoga teacher after studying in Mexico for ten years. She teaches in a mix of Spanish and English and offers a class where we focus on developing balance and coordination with proper breathing. There are elements of Vinyasa, Hatha, and Iyengar in her classes. Before dedicating herself to yoga she practiced and taught a variety of martial arts. She hopes you’ll join us in her class where we celebrate the mix of languages and yoga cultures.
Trish Buerger
Trish is YogaFit I and YogaFit II certified, receiving her training in 2001 and 2003 in Wilmington NC. Trish has her B.S.E in Recreation and Leisure Studies and her M.S.E. in Health Education from SUNY Cortland in NY. Since 1992 she had taught Community Health (now Public Health) classes (Nutrition, Stress Reduction, First Aid, Health and Aging etc.) and various exercise classes ( yoga, step aerobics, water aerobics, weight training etc. ) for the Physical Education program at the University of North Carolina Wilmington.
Trish also developed and taught exercise classes in Wilmington and surrounding counties for the aging population and disease- specific functional movement classes in various exercise studios, churches, senior centers and wherever else there was a need.
Health and fitness has always been a huge part of her life. In 1982 she was involved in a traumatic auto accident which resulted in a brain stem injury, various fractures and over a month in the ICU. She credits great Doctors, the love from family and friends and the fact that she practiced a healthy lifestyle. It is through the journey of recovery that she feels that she can understand and relate to the various abilities of those participating in her classes.
Trish and her husband both retired from UNCW in 2015 and are now loving their life in Silver City. She is very excited and happy to be teaching at the Lotus Center.
Come for an hour and a half of free form dance where you can groove however your body wants, by yourself or with others. Bare your soles (and soul), surrender to the music and let your movement be guided by your body’s wisdom. There are no wrong moves. Doors open at 10:30 AM; dance starts at 11:00.
Amita (Amy) Schmidt LCSW is a psychotherapist and meditation teacher. She was the resident teacher at the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts for six years and she was the co-founder of Southwest Sangha Retreat Center in San Lorenzo, New Mexico. She is the author of “Dipa Ma: The Life and Legacy of a Buddhist Master.” She currently practices and teaches meditation from a non-dual perspective.
Teresa is a New Mexico native and returned home to Grant County in 2000. She is a retired educator of 31 years. She taught eighteen years in Prescott Public Schools in AZ. After moving back to NM, she taught at Cliff Schools for 13 years. Her teaching career included high school and junior high school Health, Physical Education, and Family and Consumer Sciences classes. While teaching in Prescott, AZ, she also coached girls track and intramural sports, and sponsored the cheerleading squad.